Depends on the question.
There is a Victorian street’s worth of gas lighting about getting out of Afghanistan. Biden’s hands were tied by Trump, even though the Democrat revoked scores of his predecessor’s decisions. Trump wanted out but would have done it better. A lot of recent history is being rewritten these days.
Donald Trump and Joe Biden were wrong. Both fall back on this trope: Americans were tired of forever wars. Public opinion polls said so.
Not so fast. Depends on how the question is asked. “It’s hard — in some cases, arguably impossible — to phrase questions about policy in a non-leading fashion,” Sarah Isgur writes in The Dispatch. Isgur provides two examples:
- The Hill asked: “Do you approve or disapprove of Biden’s plan to remove the troops from Afghanistan?” 73% of respondents approved; 27% disagreed.
- Fox News asked: “Do you think the U.S. should remove all military troops from Afghanistan, or should some U.S. troops remain for counterterrorism operations?” 50% answered that some troops should remain; 37% responded that we should remove all troops.
The neocons are having their moment again
The USA put 2,500 boots on the ground to decapitate any incipient terrorist threats. In our 20 years in Afghanistan no terrorist deaths occurred on American soil. Our military suffered no fatalities there in over 18 months. Cost less than one percent of the Pentagon budget. A working Air Force base at Bagram. One helluva listening post in the beating heart of jihadism.
Images that define
Mindful of the people hanging onto the plane, the pilots taxied slowly at first. Military Humvees rushed alongside trying to chase people away and off the plane. Two Apache helicopter gunships flew low, seeking to scare some people away from the plane or push them off with their powerful rotor wash. REACH885 accelerated and was airborne.
Minutes later, however, the pilot and co-pilot realized they had a serious problem: The landing gear would not fully retract. They sent one of the crew members down to peer through a small porthole that allows them to view potential problems in the wheel well while aloft.
It was then the crew saw the remains of an undetermined number of Afghans who had stowed away in the wheel well — apparently crushed by the landing gear. Scenes captured in videos of the flight showed other people plunging to their death.
— “Body Parts Found in Landing Gear of Flight From Kabul” in the New York Times.
An American hero, U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-IL, said this: “The Taliban has always said that America has the watches, but they have the time.”
Blaska’s Bottom Line#1: The best public opinion poll is an election!
Blaska’s Bottom Line#2: We’re not out of there yet.
Blaska Policy Werkes 
26 responses to “Did most Americans really want out of Afghanistan?”
“How does this end?”
It doesn’t.
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Ask what’s next and I’ll say oppression, bloodshed and an increase of terrorism worldwide.
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Yeah but Orange Man was bad, his tweets must be banned but the leaders of the kinder, gentler Taliban but be allowed.
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This isn’t about whether or not to stay in Afghanistan another 20 years.
Biden clearly had ZERO plan to get out people, assets, and data out of there safely.
The “experts” failed miserably with their predictions and scenarios, yet again.
They don’t know what to say or do. The VP is in hiding, the President is clearly incapable, his administration is totally incompetent (on this, on the pandemic Biden declared “over” last month, on energy, on the economy, on education, etc.).
The Taliban took over the country and clown-stomped Biden in a matter of days, while he slept at Camp David, his cackling VP went into hiding, and is Raggedy Jen (orange woman bad!) still sipping margaritas with the gals on vacay, all of them clad in matching capri pants?
Nothing like watching helicopters on embassy roofs in a replay of Saigon 1975 along with people clinging to the wheel wells of American military planes taking off from Kabul.
And watch, we are going to be told to expect hundreds of thousands of refugees to be let in, no questions asked, no ID, no vaccination requirements for THEM, and no vetting whatsoever. Anyone raising the slightest objection will be called racist and hounded out of polite society.
This is inexcusable and it’s on Biden 100%. He owns this forever.
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Right on, Adam. Right on.
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“America. Alberto Lorenzo wanted to come to America.”
– Wally Nydorf
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Wow, Onester ! I hadda delve w-a-a-y deep. Now I know another trivial piece o’ Americana. Coroner Wally Nydorf. I’m a better man for this!
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Glad someone got it! I was 18 when that episode of “Hill St Blues” aired in 1982 and it stuck in my brain all those years. Very memorable acting by Pat Corley.
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The press conference today with the Defense Secretary and woke Gen. Milley was horrifyingly bad.
They were almost completely clueless in the face of even mildly challenging questioning from a media that appears to be finally waking up to the fact that the president and administration they have been protecting and propagandizing for is paralyzed and doesn’t know what to do or say.
Where is the president? The VP? The WH press secretary? They have all been hiding for the past week.
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One clueless reporter for ABC News said, in reference to how the (old) new regime in Afghanistan would treat women/girls and former collaborators with the Americans, “they’ll have a lot to answer for” if they go back on their promise to treat women as equal citizens and refrain from taking vengeance on those who opposed their takeover. Guess what, they WON. They have nothing to answer for and no one to answer to, least of all to prissy liberals like the one quoted above. After a few weeks, when things settle down and the American public has had time to re-focus on the really important issues, like whether a ten-year-old gets to “transition” without his parents’ approval or how many of the “terrorists” who took part in the Jan. 6th insurrection have been thrown into solitary confinement, the Taliban will do what they’ve always done: impose sharia law that treats women like domestic animals and exact the bloodiest possible revenge on every last one of their fellow countrymen who aided the infidels. And don’t expect anyone like Thoroughly Modern Milley to be hauled before a Congressional committee to explain how the world’s most powerful military was not only defeated but humiliated by a small band of fanatics inspired by a 14th century religious doctrine who were able to take the capital city of a country using pick-up trucks and motor scooters while Americans used their state-of-the-art technology to desperately shuttle out the terrified beneficiaries of Western enlightenment and progress.
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Oh really? The Taliban is trolling Biden on CNN with ice cream cones and they are going to be held accountable for gender-related transgressions?!?? LMAO!!!
WHO is going to do that exactly? A battalion of American feminists and gender studies grad students in pink pussy hats????
They are as silent as church mice and would pee their capri pants if they had to face down the Taliban.
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The 2021 Olympics of Incompetence has begun. Shortly after the Opening of the Closing Ceremony at the American Embassy, the traveling Biden Team scores a sweep of the Gold (plated) Medals awarded as tgey swiftly left town…. (Ticker Tape Parade pending)
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Sadly, you are correct.
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If after all this time they didn’t know what was going to happen or what the Taliban is capable of, they’re either stunningly incompetent or liars.
There are a reported 10,000 AMERICANS stranded in a region with a mob of people who don’t have a moral code. Getting these Americans out safely should be first priority. Instead of planning in advance and giving tour citizens ample warning, they’ve been abandoned, left to flounder, told by their very own government that they can’t guarantee their safety to the airport.
How can you lead a country, how can you sleep at night, knowing what citizens of the United States will be subjected to if they’re unable to get out?
Why was Biden not talking to the press and is now instead diverting coverage to COVID? This should be their number one priority, 24/7 until every American citizen is back here safely.
Mike Pompeo said that at the least, Trump would have made it known to the Taliban that if any American is injured, that there would be hell to pay. Why can’t Biden’s people do this? Afraid of offending them?
We also left them with powerful military equipment. They are now stronger and we will again be subject to terrorist threats. The world sees us as weak.
Also, please tell leftists that Afghans DID fight for their country, and in facts thousands died trying. To say that that all Afghans sat back and let us do all the work displays pure ignorance and callousness.
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How does this end?
Americans stranded there by our incompetent government will likely be tortured and killed, and women & children raped, as will innocent Afghans.
We have set ourselves up to be a weak joke. Don’t think for a moment that China isn’t eying Taiwan.
We will again be subject to an increased number of terror threats. Chatter has already begun.
But hey, in their arrogance and ignorance, leftists think this is a win. And most of all, no more mean tweets.
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Liberty,
I think you are exactly correct here; but I will take it a step or two further. I believe China is eying Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia and New Zealand with their focus on just how America is reacting to a bunch of savages who could not possibly match the Chinese in material production or military power and ask themselves this question: If the Americans cannot stop the Taliban from taking over Afghanistan, then what is to stop China from taking over the territory it wants?
Joe Biden has just given them that answer: Nothing!
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It is beyond belief. Benghazi times several thousand.
But cheer up America, while Joe declines Kamala is practicing her leadership skills.
ISIS cannot comment. Why is that?
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Bill, exactly.
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Mark,
I’ve been in a state of shock. I can’t believe this is our country anymore.
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Since your [you’re — “you are”] so deep in the terrorists loop maybe you should pass on the “chatter” your [you’re — “you are”] hearing.
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What’s wrong with you, Richard?
Because of incompetence, thousands of Americans and our allies have been STRANDED in Afghanistan. Our own government, the one that has an obligation to protect Americans, told them that they can’t be responsible for their safety.
And you’re focused on a contractions??
We don’t have to be in the “terrorists loop” to know that those unable to escape will be under the rule of known savages. Anyone with an ounce of sense knows this based on their history, not to mention reports have already surfaced in the REAL news.
Are you really that unhappy that you feel the need to come here and taunt us? You may think you’re upsetting us with your comments, but they really just expose your ignorance.
If Dave wants to ban me for saying this, that’s fine.
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As Liberty states, “… they’re either stunningly incompetent or liars.” Good use of an conjunction, tho the concept of incompetent leaps to the fore. IE: they’re too stupid to try to lie believably. With all the weak minds in the WH these days, you’d think they’d have some ever-vigilant intelligent folks at hand to counsel against erratic and ignorant perspectives/actions. Yepper, “stunningly incompetent” fer sure.
Many lives will be lost in addition to those packed in landing gear, and for quite a long time. The administration should be ashamed….
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I’m sick to my stomach thinking about what will happen to those who can’t get back.
They’re incompetent for sure, but I also think they think that people will believe whatever BS comes out of their mouths. And they’d be right about that. Can’t believe some of the stupidity & callousness coming out of the mouths of leftists and even some conservatives.
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Liberty @ 1:07: It is NOT our country that failed. It is the Washington Party that has cashed in, effed up and learned nothing. According to the Pentagon, there are 10,000 Americans and probably 1,000,000 Afghans in fear of their lives left behind at the tender mercies of the Taliban. None of them saw this coming. That is stunning. All our Foreign Service professionals, all our intelligence agencies (gotta rename THAT huge establishment) are clueless and impotent. THEY! not we spent $300,000,000 a day for 20 years, much of which is sloshing around DC in Pentagon diversity work shops and recruiting outreach to transsexual wannabe recruits.
We, on the other hand, trusted our leaders with our best citizens, our treasure and our love of country. So did our friends across the globe.
And the RINOs blame the DINOs and vice versa and are aghast that we happily voted for president Trump and would do so again.
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Kamala might have seen it coming …. a good way to overwhelm the old man’s limited faculties and a first step to pushing him out? She may be the lesser of 2 evils.
Freely admit I may be unduly influenced by “House of Cards”. I miss Frank Underwood.
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Mark, understood.
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